No Tutor, No Problem: A Review of Glossika’s Hokkien course

Join PHOEBE YEN on her journey of using Glossika, an AI-powered language learning tool, to relearn the Hokkien dialect after years of neglect.

Story by Phoebe Yen.

Recently, the Hokkien language has connected with an unlikely group of people in Singapore, the youths. Following the tide of other online creators learning to embrace their heritage and culture, many Singaporean Gen Zs have started creating localised content by hosting videos in the Hokkien dialect.

Feeling inspired by this new trend, I went searching for online Hokkien learning resources that matched these three criteria: it has to have English translations, it needs to be free and simple to use.

Fortunately, I found Glossika, an Artificial Intelligence -based learning resource that focused mainly on the oral aspect of language, making it a great fit for learning a spoken dialect like Hokkien. Usually, you would have to pay an annual fee of US$24.99 to use Glossika, but their Taiwanese Hokkien course was entirely free!

Recording myself speaking Hokkien during one of my Glossika practice sessions.

Photo by Phoebe Yen.

Regarding the differences between Taiwanese Hokkien and Singaporean Hokkien which is not offered by Glossika, Josephine Gan, Secretary-General of Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan says that “Taiwanese Hokkien is very much based on Chinese texts” and “it doesn’t have foreign influences”. Ms Gan still recommends learning Taiwanese Hokkien as “it can be an inroad for you to learn the language.”

With my doubts assuaged, I continued with Glossika’s Taiwanese Hokkien course. In the beginning, I had to take a Hokkien proficiency test. This test required me to listen to audio recordings of Hokkien sentences and match them to their English translation. At the end of the test, I was assigned level ‘B1’ of proficiency.

Michael Campbell, a writer at Glossika, wrote in an article that this was Glossika’s way of tracking your understanding of vocabulary and language concepts. ‘A1’ and ‘A2’ are the beginner levels, while ‘B1’ and ‘B2’ are intermediate levels and ‘C1’ and ‘C2’ are advanced levels. I thought this was a really good way to cater to people with different levels of fluency, as well as motivate them to advance to the next level.

After the software has ascertained my proficiency level, I moved on to study sessions where I had to listen to a native speaker’s pronunciation of the sentence and then record myself saying the sentence.

Liu Yiyun Liu, 18, an avid user of language learning tools, says, “I feel that the phrases we learn can actually be applied into our daily conversations.” Glossika has useful conversational phrases such as “I like your outfit.” or “Have you eaten?”

However, while learning these phrases, there were times where I found myself repeatedly pronouncing a word incorrectly because Glossika does not pick up on pronunciation errors.

In addition, Ryan Lim, 20, a full-time National Serviceman, who also tried out the Glossika’s Taiwanese Hokkien course, says, “​​It is too troublesome as a web app and I would use it more if it was an iOS app.” This was something that I related to. I had to open my web browser and Google Search ‘Glossika’ whenever I wanted to start a new session.

Despite these limitations, I continued on with my practice sessions. I stuck to the same schedule of committing at least 30 minutes to learning; I did practice sessions before going to bed and revisited those new phrases during my morning commute.

After a week of learning, I retook my Hokkien proficiency test to see how much I have progressed and managed to progress to level B2 (upper-intermediate)!

Moving up from level ‘B1’ to ‘B2’ after just one week of practice. Photo by Phoebe Yen.

Based on my experience, I would say that Glossika is a great learning tool for those that already have basic Hokkien or Mandarin knowledge.

Ryan says, “It doesn’t contain the foundational knowledge of the language such as grammar and sentence structure.” I agree with Ryan, Glossika is heavily focused on teaching new vocabulary and practising pronunciation, and not so much on the foundations, thus it may not be the most suitable for complete beginners.

Ultimately, there are many different Hokkien resources out there but what is most important is to keep the spirit of learning Hokkien alive. Ms Gan encapsulated my thoughts perfectly when she says, “Any effort is good but whether it sustains or not is up to the individual.”

Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars